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Canadian lawmakers vote to repeal gun registry
OTTAWA, Feb 15, 2012 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
Members of the governing
Conservative Party cheered in Canada's House of Commons Wednesday
after voting to repeal Canada's long gun registry.
After a lengthy debate, MPs voted 159-130 in favor of Bill
C-19, the Ending the Long Gun Registry Act, which will end the
registry and allow the government to destroy records pertaining to
non-restricted firearms.
The repeal of the gun registry, which had forced all Canadian
gun owners to register their weapons, has been a Conservative
promise for the past 15 years.
Conservatives, who represent many of the country's rural
ridings, claimed the gun registry, brought in by the previous
Liberal government, violated the privacy of farmers and hunters
who own guns.
"Many of us have waited for this day for a very long time,"
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a news conference Wednesday.
The Conservatives won a majority of seats in last May's federal
election.
The gun registry was created after a deranged man gunned down
14 women engineering students at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique in
1989. Previously, only restricted weapons like pistols and
automatic rifles had to be registered with authorities.
Farmers, hunters and aboriginal people opposed the law, but the
Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, representing the top
managers of the country's police forces, supported it.
The association pleaded with the government last fall to keep
the gun registry, as they called it a valuable tool of law
enforcement that helped front-line police officers.
In committee testimony last year, the police chiefs said the
registry is checked about 10,000 time a day, mainly by police
officers who are about to enter houses to deal with domestic
disputes.
But Toews, who is in charge of the country's federal police
force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, called the gun registry
"a billion-dollar boondoggle."
"It does nothing to help put an end to gun crime, nor has it
saved one Canadian life," he told reporters. "This (The repeal) is
simply an attempt to make people feel safe, rather than doing
something substantive in criminal law."
Although the registry was supposed to pay for itself with
registration fees, computer software development costs went out of
control and the database ended up with more than 1 billion
Canadian dollars (nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars) over budget.
Parliamentary opposition leaders disagreed with the
Conservatives.
"This is a sad day for victims of violence," said New
Democratic Party interim leader Nycole Turmel.
Liberal Party interim leader Bob Rae said the Conservatives
misread the mood of the Canadian people, noting the more the
governing party makes it easier to own guns, "the more they
distance themselves from where most Canadians are on this
question." ' The provincial government of Quebec wants to
maintain its own registry once the federally managed one is gone
and has threatened legal action. Toews, however, said he will not
allow the province to use information from the federal gun
registry, adding that data will be destroyed once the bill is
signed into law.
The gun registry bill is expected to be easily passed by the
Conservative-dominated Senate. Liberal senators said Wednesday
they will not obstruct or try to delay the passage of the bill.
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